This report is our opportunity to inform and inspire our global community. Here, you will find highlights of the 2019-20 academic year and updates on how we have pursued our unique school mission.
Message from the ChairEvery year is special in its own way, but 2019-2020 will definitely be a year that we will never be able to forget. We were hit by an historically powerful typhoon at the beginning of the school year, and then the coronavirus pandemic, which threw us off of our ordinary course of operation and impacted the lives of all members of our community in significant ways.During both times, I was reminded that true leadership thrives on challenges and that authentic leaders are those who can turn adversity into opportunity. Not only our Founding Head of School, Rod Jemison, but also many of our students, staff, and faculty demonstrated this quality throughout these unprecedented times.We are also deeply obliged to so many of our supporters who extended their generous and genuine help and care to the school and its students when we were in need. I still recall moments when those contributions arrived at our door (or our email inboxes), which even today bring me to tears. We never take those gifts for granted, and we are committed to delivering what we stand for.I, on behalf of the Board of UWC ISAK Japan, will promise you that we shall stay tightly together regardless of where all of our community members might be physically, and come out at the other side of this (seemingly) long tunnel even stronger – with our resilience, empathy, creativity, and optimism.“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill
As catalysts for positive change, we:
Without fail, the day that our new students arrive on campus is one of the most exciting days of the year. For many, it is the day where they will first meet lifelong friends and mentors. For our staff and faculty, it is the culmination of years of work.
Arrival Day 2019 shattered expectations as our student body surpassed 190 students from 74 countries. Once registration was complete and students had a chance to settle, the entire community enjoyed a special welcome ceremony featuring Miyota’s famous dancing dragons. It truly was a day to remember.
September 21st not only marks the UN International Day of Peace, but it is also UWC Day, where the global UWC Community comes together to raise awareness of a particular issue.
For UWC Day 2019, the theme was “Climate of Change.” Students created a series of events, forums, and marches to discuss all sides of the climate change debate and consider ways to unite global citizens in addressing environmental issues.
Watch the UWC Day 2019 video here.
Ask our students what was the highlight of the year and many of them will tell you it was Typhoon Hagibis. It’s not a response you would expect, especially considering the extensive damage wrought by the storm across Japan, including our own campus, where it knocked over nearly 50 trees and left us without power for over 90 hours.
But it was also a catalyst for our community. It robbed us of many of the conveniences of technology, but it replaced it with the precious opportunity to connect and forge bonds. We realized how technology can be both a blessing and a trap. We talked with each other longer and deeper than ever before. We survived and were far stronger after having endured as a community.
On a beautiful November evening, we held our Year-End Party with 44 people attending, including founders, catalyst supporters, and their families & friends. Thanks to everyone’s incredible generosity, we were able to raise more than 12 million yen through our auction.
The event was another reminder of how special our community is the incredible group of supporters who continue to put their faith, love, and finances into our project.
Each year, our staff and partnering organizations work together to create short-term work opportunities for those students who are unable to return home over winter break.
This year, our students joined opportunities locally and across Japan at locations as far as Tokyo, Yamagata, and down the coast in Fukui.
To learn more, please see Hasan’s (Class of 2021 / Libya) first-hand account of his winter work program experience with Nihon M&A Center.
2021 started with one of the biggest challenges UWC ISAK had ever experienced: positive COVID tests. A small number of our community had caught the virus, which forced our school to implement extraordinary measures (including campus and residence lockdowns and rigorous testing) to keep our school community and the Karuizawa community safe.
Despite the hardship, we were able to endure and in early February celebrated our international diversity and the end of lockdown at International Day.
Seemingly overnight, schools around the world have shifted from regular face-to-face learning to remote learning. What makes the UWC ISAK Japan experience unique is we also have students from around the world, which brings with it a whole extra set of challenges, including operating across all time zones and dealing with sometimes unreliable internet.
But thanks to our committed students, dedicated faculty, and supportive staff and parents, in true ISAK fashion, we have been finding a way. In these two posts about Dr. Mandy‘s and Adam Atkin‘s approaches, we see a small, but representative sample of how our teachers have been managing their classes, innovating their approaches, and, most importantly, how it is resonating with our students.
Considering all the adversity we have experienced this year as a community AND the incredible responses, we should dub this the “year of taking action in the face of discomfort.” This is one of the ways we define leadership at UWC ISAK Japan, but we have never had so much opportunity to take action as we have had this year.
And this is one of the many ways we will remember the Class of 2020: The resilient ones. In any case, they will certainly be remembered fondly. And so, while it may not have been the large scale ceremony we had originally planned for late May, and while the full Class was not able to attend, we held a modest, yet uniquely special ceremony to recognize the Class of 2020. We can’t wait to see how these changemakers will help to change our world for the better. (View Photo Album; Video Ceremony)
This program covers over 40% of our total operational costs, allowing us to support over 100 students in 2019-20. We are deeply grateful for all of our donors and especially humbled by the fact that 80% of our Furusato Nozei donors are repeat donors.
* Our students receive financial assistance fully or partially from Furusato Nozei and other sources.
Each year, our alumni continue to demonstrate what it means to realise their potential and be catalysts for positive change — not in theory, but through action in their communities and fields of work around the world.
Growing up in Afghanistan and getting exposed all of a sudden to a totally new environment by joining UWC ISAK I had countless paradigm shifts since 2017. I have changed so much since joining ISAK and those changes are beyond the wildest stretches of personality, and I am sure those changes have shaped my life for good and would have not been possible without UWC ISAK Japan. The best lesson I have learned so far is never to underestimate the power of innovation and creativity and I will help others to realize it too.
Before coming to UWC ISAK Japan, I was homeschooling in a small town in Hokkaido in Northern Japan. Learning alone at home, I dreamed about sharing the passion for learning with friends and exploring new horizons in an environment where all members have different skills, experiences, and ways of thinking. Thankfully, I currently have all of these at UWC ISAK JAPAN thanks to a generous scholarship from the school. I will keep studying hard to make positive changes in the learning environments of children.
When I left my home in India in 2018, little did I know that my journey at UWC ISAK would be nothing short of transformational. ISAK has helped me transform in ways that I never could have dreamed of and most importantly has helped me realize my potential and find my ‘why’ in life which is ‘to ‘help fix broken relationships through leadership based on service, sustainability, and peace’. ISAK helped light my passion for peace and conflict resolution and I will help create a positive change in the world by helping individuals realize their potential to be change-makers.
Mathematics
Director of Admissions
Economics
University Advising
Chemistry, G10 Science
English
Environmental Systems & Societies
Information Science, Librarian
Computer Science, Information Science
Over an incredibly trying year, our parent community continues to put their faith in UWC ISAK Japan because they see the results.
The generosity of our Founders, Catalyst Supporters, and donors who have made a life-changing education possible for students from around the world. Donations of every size support the mission of UWC ISAK Japan and we thank everyone who has contributed to our school. Please see the full list of our supporters here.
Yasushi Ando Scholarship
Junko Fukutake Scholarship
Goh Family Scholarship
Honjo Scholarship
Tomonori Ito Scholarship
Saori and Shinji Kimura Scholarship
Akira Kosugi Scholarship
Shigeru Sato Scholarship
Makiko Suehiro Scholarship
Goldman Sachs
Hoppy Scholarship
Ichigo Asset Scholarship
Neuberger Berman Scholarship Fund
YKK Holding Asia Scholarship
W&M Solar Power Scholarship
W.L.S. Spencer Foundation
Takashi Oyagi Scholarship
Canyon Capital Japan Scholarship
HOPE Scholarship
HSBC Group Scholarship
Morgan Stanley
Nomura Holdings Scholarship
Proverbs 16:16 Scholarship
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Scholarship
Project E-Right
The Nippon Foundation Scholarship
Davis-UWC Scholars Program
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.
View the Board of Directors, Advisory Board, Statutory Auditors and Councils.
Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado
Lin Kobayashi (CHAIR)
Mamoru Taniya
Roderick Jemison
Hidehiro Imatsu
Masahiro Koshiba
Paul McInerney
Shusaku Minoda
Kotaro Yamagishi
Kimiya Yamamoto
Nobuyuki Idei (CHAIR)
David Katsujin Chao
Heang Chhor
Yasuchika Hasegawa
Takashi Kawamura
Kakutaro Kitashiro
Kan Suzuki
Fumio Tateishi
Yasushi Ando
Kenji Hosokawa
Naoki Tamura
Hidehiko Hayashi (CHAIR)
Heang Chhor
Kenji Govaers
Yasushi Hatakeyama
Hitoshi Honda
Ryusuke Honjo
Roderick Jemison
Lin Kobayashi
Yojiro Koizumi
Hiroko Kono
Masahiro Koshiba
Mariko Magnan
Thomas Miller
Shusaku Minoda
Suguru Miyake
Jennifer Paddock
Shigeru Sato
Toru Shimada
Makiko Shinoda
Norio Takamatsu
Shotaro Tanaka
Mamoru Taniya
Koki Uchiyama
Yasuhiro Wakebayashi
Kimiya Yamamoto
Masakazu Yanagisawa
Charlotte Yew
Toshiaki Yoshida
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